Month: June 2011

Dilbert creator recently posted an interesting article titled “Pegs and Holes”. It is a definite departure of opinion from the usual discussions of men in powerful positions behaving badly with women through various channels ( in person, twitter etc.). His post might offend anyone at first but being a regular reader, I understand his point of view and the humor underneath. Well this post is not exactly about what he wrote but something similar. I always wonder about the other humiliated party which never gets mentioned. Let it be Ryan Giggs, Charlie Sheen or even Wiener, you can never clap with one hand. Then what happened to the other hand?
Now, I am not supporting molestors,rapists or Strauss-Kahn like people who simply overpower the weaker sex. I am talking about the women also playing a role in encouraging bad behavior. For instance, the twitter messages and facebook posts of Anthony Wiener(YES, THAT IS HIS NAME!), were a two sided communication. Now I am not justifying him sending lewd pictures of himself to the said person as a good thing, my point remains why do women encourage such behaviour? Charlie Sheen can rant all he wants, hell he even makes money by making those same people who condemn his character and actions, pay money to hear him talk. But his personal life with his multiple wives and Goddesses remains intact i.e those women see no problem in being near the man and his wealth. Then why just call him loony? I think the women are equally loony. But then fame comes with a price – of getting the good and the flak for just about everything.
I am all for female rights and development, but there are somethings I cannot digest. No matter how crazy a man’s behaviour, when it is not forced upon them, they do encourage it. Lets take a simple example of ensnaring rich husbands. Being a trophy wife is perhaps the worst tag any woman could live with. What is a trophy all about? Looking good sans utility and meant for display. But women clamor to be one. How else can you justify men like Salman Rushdie’s getting married 6 times and getting gorgeous women like Padma Lakshmi (that was one wedding that blew me off- she was successful,rich and famous. Why Salman Rushdie?) Well numerous page 3 reports indicate she loved the limelight. She loved being in the news, getting hi-profile friends and contacts and being invited to the most upmarket do’s. I guess greed escapes no one. It helps both parties get what they want, but when it comes to character bashing – guess who takes most of it.
So that is what the title of my post says – there is a demand for ridiculous things – trophy wives, the pleasure of sexting behind your super successful and intelligent wife’s back (Huma Abedin, really Anthony Wiener is your choice?), living with three women under one roof, wives who double as maid servants for cooking and cleaning purposes only, women who participate in reality shows to be your wife despite your drinking,abuse and drug issues (Dimpy Ganguly), numerous affairs and so on. These demands are more than fulfilled with an abundant supply of women for all these things and finally the slandering and punishment is handed out to the more famous one. Columns after columns are written analyzing the cause of behavior lapses on behalf of these powerful men knowing that for any ridiculous demand, there will be a supply. What else can explain Ryan Giggs’s ex-girlfriend/sister-in-law/mother-of-his-child, marrying his brother last year? Was she on meth or something?
I wonder why women accept all these lewd requests. They are equally guilty in my eyes. Again, I am not talking about instances where they were raped or overpowered or forced into something. But its a vicious cycle. Knowing such a supply exists will lead to further crazy demands resulting in more horror stories. I think society as a whole needs some medication. Not just the men alone.
I wonder why Scott Adams received so much flak for his story. It sparks off a chain of thought indicting only the men of their crimes. In my opinion both are equally guilty and the only way to cut off the demand is to remove the supply. Punishments do no good. They are treated on a case by case basis. Remove the supply and the demand will go unfulfilled and hopefully folks will learn a lesson. Until then, it is a boom time for Conan or Bill Maher who absolutely ripped Wiener making it a delight for all us viewers.
Now, who doesnt enjoy a scandal? But seriously, only now and then.

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I love Tina Fey. Period. Ages before she wrote Bossypants or even thought of writing a book, I was a big big fan. I remember watching 30 rock through my second year college and got my first real exposure to American pop culture. Many references scattered right through the dialogues would go over my head. But then slowly and steadily I began to follow all the news with David Letterman, Conan (It was late night with Conan O Brien then) and then the hilarity of the dialogues struck. It came as no surprise that the show won so many Emmy’s the first year itself! Tina Fey’s Liz Lemon is a quirky, eccentric and over the top character but I liked her because she was so real. Not the barbie doll variety like Aniston who looked super hot in Friends and was shown a little blonde-like (clarification: I LOVE Rachel, just highlighting how different Liz and Rachel are). Each conversation is super funny and it intrigued me then that women could do such amazing comedy; both in performance and writing.

Soon a phenomena called Sarah Palin hit US and Tina Fey became a cultural force when she did that superb sketch in SNL. So when Tina Fey released her book, I bought it within hours and loved it!!!
Bossypants is different. It tells you the story of being a woman and working in corporate America especially media in a funny way. Her sarcasm is top notch and so subtle you just laugh out loud.( I did this so many times in the plane to the extreme annoyance of my neighbour). Its been ages since something I read made me laugh this hard. It is a naked picture of all the magazine photoshoots and the photoshopping or the obsession with weight or the issues with her nanny,in-laws and daughter not to mention the complete story of the conception of her SNL sketches, 30rock and her brush with improv. The book is a must read for anyone who intends to someday walk the corridors of power in his/her workplace. It is inspiring nevertheless to find your true calling despite the odds. She made a place for herself among all the Harvard boys in the show business and made it big! I like it and as I said before did not stop chuckling between guffaws throughout the book.

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I am just recovering from one of the most important and difficult presentations I have ever given in my life. My thesis proposal. Right from the writing to the editing to the presentation to the preparation took so much out of me that I lay exhausted that night unable to even get my self to execute simple functions like shutting down my computer. But the next few days have been fantastic. Whoever said that you find things most interesting when you are busy is so true. Not that I have no work, in fact paying close attention to the presentation reveals a “proposal” which means that I have officially signed up for some heavy-duty work. Still, unwinding is completely non-negotiable and a few trips here and there would suffice in helping regain my momentum again.
On a totally different note, I wonder what is happening to Indian politics and the entire democracy these days. As scam after scam is being unearthed, people getting more and more informed (evidence: the TamilNadu election results), I get the baaad feeling that something very gloomy,unprecedented and totally unexpected (like the stupidity of Baba RamDev’s arrest) will happen. I am not sure people think BJP government would do better. It might, but is besieged with its own religious agenda. I wonder how it would be if a billion strong nation loses faith in a government altogether. It is scary to imagine anything beyond that.
Moving to a different thing I am religiously doing these days (apart from spinning) is watching the French Open. Somehow, this french open was delightful from the start since no Williams sisters were playing leaving the Women’s title wide open for contest and the men’s draw was so interesting, with Djoker in astronomically brilliant form and Nadal seeing a threat to his King of Clay status. See, there was no Federer in the pipeline. Free of any pressure, he played like a dream. I followed him silently watching signs of the old Federer surface and ooh and aah at his shots. The two week wait culiminated in breathtaking tennis in the semi-final where Djoker was ousted by none other than the King himself. Mindblowing tennis. There was no way some of the shots could have landed inside the lines. But they did. Regardless of the outcome of the finals in another 8 hours, tennis will surely be the winner.I cannot wait. And by the way, I supported Li Na all through. Glad she won. I just wonder if a chinese girl could do it, why do we(Indians) and Sania Mirza remain content with just a second/first round showing? No chalta hai attitude here please!!!!
Hotlanta is true to its name these days.The heat is scorching, sometimes upping the daily maximum to conditions worse than Rajasthan. I hate summers. Gosh, can the rains begin!
PS: Random post I know. Will write something interesting next post, I promise!